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Month: July 2013

So, this week I’ve been experimenting. Often times we find ourselves saying, “I’m so busy, I can’t find the time to: Workout, start a project, clean, cook healthy, call a family member, do this, do that, and the list goes on.” I, myself, find that I tend to say I don’t have the time to do certain things. I wanted to see how true this really was. Each day I marked down how many hours of wasted time I spend during the day. What do I consider wasted time? Well even though I like doing some of these things, I actually do consider them to be a waste of time knowing I could be doing something more productive. My list included:

Facebook/Instagram/Social Media-Yes I know I know, but trust me, the world will not end if I can’t get on Facebook for one hour to see who’s life is miserable, who hates their job, what someone ate today, what someone looks like at the gym, or the latest post of someone I have no clue managed to get on my friends list because I have no idea who they are.

Television-Yep I’m guilty. I watch the drama filled lives of others on Reality TV and live vicariously through Housewives, the Big Brother House, and others.

Napping-I don’t take a nap every day, but sometimes if I get the chance and I’m in a position to do so, I will nap. However, I tend to take longer naps than I probably should.

Surfing the Web-This does not count social media. There are some things I need to look up to find out information for, but I also tend to wander the web and find myself at very interesting places to say the least that really have nothing to do with me or what I was attempting to get on the internet for anyways.

Sleeping-This does not included napping, this includes that extra hour or two in the morning I hit the snooze alarm 50 times when I could have just gotten my butt up out of bed and had a 2 hour start to my day. OR the hour or two I spent tossing and turning and unable to fall asleep when I could have been doing paperwork or getting something productive done.

These 5 things I thought where my biggest time wasters this week. After a week of this I figured that on average I wasted roughly 4 hours per day. When I actually looked at this on paper and realized each week I could be wasting 28-30 HOURS! Are you kidding me!?!? That’s a lot of time I could be doing things that I love, exploring new passions, getting little projects done, knocking things off my bucket list, learning a new skill, calling family, reaching my goals faster, and the list goes on. It’s incredible when you really look at all the time we “waste” during the day, but then later mention that we just don’t have the time to do certain things. Now with this being said, I’m not saying I will stop getting on Facebook nor give up my dose of Housewife drama, but I will decrease the time tremendously that I’m doing these things and set aside specified times for those certain things as well.

Be more aware of where your time is going to. Try my experiment for a week. Write down what you feel are “time wasters” and how much time per day you spend doing these things. Take a look at the list after a week a then I bet you can’t say to yourself, “I just don’t have time to work out, I don’t have time to go back to school, I don’t have time to visit or call my family, etc.” I learned through this experiment that in fact I DO have the time to do a lot of things I say I can’t, but it’s about MAKING the time. My question to you is, do you REALLY need to get on Facebook right now for 30 minutes when you could be working out? Do you REALLY need to watch the latest episode of reality television on FOX instead of doing your school work? I promise that when you start to FIND the time to do the things you’ve been putting off, you will feel more accomplished, you will feel a sense of freedom, and your goals will get reached MUCH faster, and life will just be much more awesome!

“We have what we need to be happy. We just don’t have the right perspective.” ~Joel Osteen

In this past year of my life I have done more, seen more, learned more, and grew more as a person than I have in 28 years combined. The number one lesson over this past year I’ve learned is that “If you want happiness, make it happen” Am I saying I’ve always been happy? Absolutely not, but I finally realized that happiness does not come to you, you must change the way you live your life in order to be happy. Sometimes that may mean taking risks, stepping out of the box, sometimes you have to MAKE yourself happy. It starts with choices and thinking. I am NOW a firm believer that the way we think has a lot to do with how much happiness can come to us. Happiness is a choice, if you choose to be unhappy you will be, plain and simple. If you choose to be happy you will be, plain and simple. I spent a lot of years feeling like I was “stuck” in a life that I was just ok with. Was I completely happy? No, but I felt like there was nothing better for me and this was my life I was stuck with. I never thought I had potential to do anything or live anywhere but where I was because it was safe. If you don’t take risks then you don’t have to face rejections right? You don’t have to suffer disappointment, you never have to find out what failing is like if you play it safe in life, even if it means sacrificing happiness. Well here I am a year later with a COMPLETELY different mindset in the fact that dammit, EVERYONE deserves happiness! If I could go back a few years ago and tell my then negative thinking self I’d say “Abby, if you aren’t happy with what you are doing or where you are then change it!” However, I believe that all the things I’ve done and gone through in life have been for a purpose and I would never be where I am today without going through the things I did and doing things the way I did. Sometimes it takes the worst situations in life to realize our true potential and sometimes we must go through difficult times in order to find the happiness we want. In this past year I have: Gone through a divorce, moved across country, learned to live “outside the comfort zone”, and looking today, I wouldn’t change a thing. I’m a work in progress daily. I have issues I still deal with, things I need to be better at, and please don’t get the wrong impression, I am not perfect and have imperfections just like any other person in this world. My challenge is to overcome those things and strive to be better.

I’m a believer now that life should be treasured and each and every day we should wake up and look forward to great things. Not every day is going to be great, I know, but it’s how we deal with the bad days and the bad times that push us forward to become better and stronger individuals. If I can help one negative person turn into a positive person then I have succeeded. Life isn’t perfect, but we should all strive to make it as enjoyable as possible and it all starts with attitude! (Next blog topic)